Overdentures

Overdentures

Overdentures are similar to traditional dentures, except that they are fixed to your mouth. The idea is that instead of using adhesives or any sort of stabilizing material, the stabilization of the denture takes place in a mechanical way. This means that implants will be inserted into your jaw bone, with an abutment that snaps into the denture thus fixing it to your mouth. Nowadays there are a variety of precision dental attachments, such as a click bar, allowing you to choose what’s most comfortable for you.

How it works?

An overdenture works in the same way that your natural teeth do; they are rooted in alveolar tissue of your jaw bone. But instead of roots, the anchoring material in this case is an implant or two, depending on the number of teeth that we are trying to replace. Sometimes one or two implants can house an entire arch of teeth, though usually this means that a dental precision attachment, such as a bar or click bar, also needs to be attached to the denture. This means that the artificial teeth go onto plastic that is attached to this precision bar, which is in turn fitted with a ball attachment to secure everything to the implants that have been inserted into your jaw bone. Although these bars and attachments support the dentures better than implants do, implants are still necessary to support the bars. Overdentures are designed to last you the rest of your natural life span, however the success of any dental treatment is dependent on oral hygiene and eating habits.

These dentures can increase your bite capacity by 300%, giving you a better bite than you might have had in the golden age of your teeth! So if you are interested in getting your old teeth back with a permanent solution that is superior to a regular denture, but are not interested in getting way too many implants, an overdenture may be just the right thing for you. Cover dentures may also be an option. Cover dentures are similar to overdentures in that they require an implant for stabilization, but they are much thinner, and cover your existing teeth. So if you still have some teeth remaining, whole teeth or just roots, then covering them may be a more sensible option for you.